Willard School Times To Change In 2014

BERLIN — — The schedule at Willard Elementary School will change in September 2014 to conform with the later starting and closing times in the other two grammar schools in the district, school superintedent David Erwin said in a letter sent Thursday to parents and staff.

His decision came after a June 3 meeting with several dozen Willard parents who said families needed time to adjust their lives to any change in the Willard school day. Last month, the school board discussed the possibility of putting Willard on the same schedule as the other elementary schools this fall.

At the June 3 meeting, Erwin told parents that Willard's decades-old school day of 8 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. puts the school and its staff out of synch with the Griswold and Hubbard elementary schools, which open at 8:40 a.m. and close at 3:25 p.m.The different times made it tough for staffs of all three schools to work together or attend workshops on days school is in session, he said.

In the letter, Erwin said he listened closely to the concerns parents voiced about the hardships of adjusting home life and jobs to a new school schedule, so he decided to make the change in Willard effective in 15 months, in September 2014.

"We made this decision to assist parents in meeting their children's needs," Erwin wrote. He said he heard parents say that putting Willard on the later schedule this fall would not give families sufficient time to adjust to that change.

However, Willard will follow the later schedule on the 15 early dismissal days in the 2013-14 school calendar. This will allow "the teachers and staff the opportunity to work collaboratively" on those 15 days, which are mostly either short class days because of professional development workshops for staff or scheduled parent-teacher conference sessions. Early dismissal schedules for Willard will be 8:40 a.m. to 12:45 p.m., the same already observed at Griswold and Hubbard elementary schools, he said.